GEORGIA WORRIED ABOUT TURKEY, ARMENIA TALKS, SAYS EXPERT
Hurriyet Daily News
gia-worried-over-turkey-armenia-talks-says-expert- 2009-09-14
Sept 14 2009
Turkey
Normalization talks between Ankara and Yerevan have worried Georgia,
an Armenian expert has said, suggesting that the government in Tbilisi
wants the border between Turkey and Armenia to remain closed.
He also said Georgia might face a territorial dispute with neighboring
Armenia because of the ethnic Armenians’ situation in the former
Soviet country, adding that the sizeable Armenian minority in
Georgia’s Samtskhe-Javakheti region would eventually demand autonomy
for themselves.
"Along with Iran, Georgia is a major transit route for Armenia to reach
the world. Seventy percent of Armenian trade is procured via Georgian
transit routes. So, Georgia wants the border to be kept shuttered,"
Haykazun Alvrstyan, a historian and researcher at the Center for
Armenian Studies, told Hurriyet Daily News & Economic Review over
the weekend. Georgia fears losing its key role in Armenia’s trade
relations, Alvrstyan said. "Another of Georgia’s fears is to see
Armenia as an alternative country for energy pipeline plans."
The closest land routes to and from Armenia run through Georgia – via
the Black Sea ports of Poti and Batumi and via the border checkpoint of
Kazbegi-Verkhny Lars on the Georgian-Russian border. The checkpoint
was closed by Russia in 2006 after relations were frozen between
Moscow and Tbilisi.
Conflict warning
Likening the situation in Georgia’s Samtskhe-Javakheti region with the
row in the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh republic in Azerbaijan,
Alvrstyan warned of a possible military conflict in the Caucasus
region.
"The Georgian government has ignored Armenian culture in the region as
it has not officially recognized the Armenian church and has banned
the Armenian language in schools," Alvrstyan said. "If mandatory
precautions are not adopted, major conflicts will be inevitable in
the region."
Ethnic Armenians are the majority in the southern Georgian region of
Samtskhe-Javakheti, making up about 54 percent of the population,
according to the 2002 census. Armenians, who share the region with
Pontian Greeks, Ossetians and Georgians, are underrepresented in all
spheres of public life, especially government, according to a 2006
report by the International Crisis Group.
Lack of dialogue between local Armenians and the national government
in Tbilisi adds to perceptions of discrimination and alienation,
and many Armenians claim they are treated as second-class citizens,
the report said.
Nagorno-Karabakh is an enclave in Azerbaijan that has been occupied
by Armenian forces since the end of a six-year conflict that left
about 30,000 people dead and displaced 1 million before a truce was
reached in 1994. Its unilateral independence is not recognized by
the international community.
Georgia was oppressing not only ethnic Armenians, but also all
minority groups in the former Soviet country, Alvrstyan said and
claimed that the government in Tbilisi was trying to assimilate the
ethnic population.
"The Ossetians and Abkhazians’ declaration of independence are
a perfect example of revolt against these assimilation efforts,"
Alvrstyan said of the separatist regions of Georgia. The rebel regions’
independence has been recognized only by Russia and its Latin American
allies, Nicaragua and Venezuela; Moscow’s decision to recognize the
region sparked outrage from the international community.
"The ethnic Armenians in the Javakheti region may want to have an
autonomous administration in near future," Alvrstyan said.